[I've already registered one copy of this book and have another on my keeper shelf, but when I found this nice hardcover copy among the secondhand books at Glad Day Bookshop in Toronto while attending the BookCrossing convention I couldn't resist the urge to make this one my keeper copy and free up the paperback for release!]

Canadian author Edward O. Phillip's "Sunday" series, featuring 50-something gay lawyer Geoffry Chadwick, begins with this dark (yet often comedic) suspense tale: Chadwick, alone on New Year's Eve and somewhat depressed about breaking up with his lover, picks up a young hustler and brings him home. When the man tries to rob him, Chadwick fights back, the hustler winds up dead - and Chadwick finds himself in a rather precarious situation. What he decides to do about it, and how this plays out, make up the majority of the tale; there's a feeling of vague unease shading to impending doom that reminds me of Highsmith, and poor Chadwick's nerves are tested to the limit.

One of the things I like about Phillips' books is his ability to make this quiet, comfort-seeking, somewhat stodgy character so likeable, even when he's making decisions that the reader (and, to some degree, Chadwick himself) know to be risky if not downright wrong. Or maybe I just identify with a 50-something person who lives alone in relative contentment but who wonders - just now and then - what else might be out there... and if it's worth the risk to the status quo of looking for it.